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Housing
Housing is a key issue for Cambridge. I know that Cambridge house prices are much too high. This makes it very difficult for companies to recruit staff and for public sector workers, who are generally lower paid, to live in Cambridge at all. The Labour Government's sustainable communities plan is an indication of how seriously Labour is in its approach to housing. Anne Campbell
The Facts
| Investment | Labour has tripled funding for council housing to £2.5 billion since 1997. Labour introduced a home insulation programme to ensure that people can make their homes warm. Labour also introduced the Winter Fuel Allowance for pensioners, and 13,780 pensioners in Cambridge benefit from this. Labour has invested in starter home initiatives which have helped 10,000 key workers buy houses. |
| Commitment | Anne took the Lib Dem Council in Cambridge to task for accumulating £5 m which should have been spent on council housing repairs. The City Council Labour Group has been successful in arguing that in the Cambridge area 50% of new housing should be affordable. This will mean over the next 10 years there will be a large increase in the number of homes available for rent. Anne lobbied the Government of the introduction of a tenancy deposit scheme which protects tenants from those landlords who try to withhold deposits. |
| Commitment | The Labour government now calls for a high proportion of housing in new developments to be in an affordable price range both for rent and purchase. Labour has raised the stamp duty threshold from £60,000 to £120,000 for residential properties, exempting an extra 300,000 homebuyers from stamp duty every year. Since 1997, Labour has cut the number of substandard homes by 1m, installing 300,000 new kitchens, 220,000 new bathrooms and 720,000 new boilers and central heating systems in council homes. |
The work goes on: A Labour Government will:
Make Homes Decent:
In 2002, the Labour Government renewed its commitment to making all social housing 'decent' by 2010.
A decent home is one that is wind and weather tight, warm and has modern facilities. The Government recognises that many councils do not have the resources to bring their housing stock up to the decent homes standard, so there are various options to help local authorities obtain additional financial investment.
Help First Time Buyers:
Labour has just announced a new First Time Buyers Initiative to help over 15,000 first time buyers who could not own or part own a home without extra help. Surplus public sector land will be used for the homes, and the price the buyer pays will meet the building costs. This builds on the Government's Key Worker Scheme which provides housing assistance through new build schemes and equity loans to key workers such as doctors, nurses and teachers.
Labour is planning to introduce a Homebuy scheme offering up to 300,000 council and housing association tenants the opportunity to buy part of their home, increasing their equity over time if they wish.
Build New Homes:
Labour will increase the annual supply of new social homes by 50% by 2008, and give local authorities the ability to start building homes again and bring empty homes back into use.
In Cambridge, the government wants to build on available brown field sites and to release more land in and around Cambridge for development.
The Structure Plan Strategy for the Cambridge Sub-region sets out a vision for sustainable development including the provision of 47,500 new homes by 2016 and £2.2 billion of infrastructure needed to support its development. The City Council Labour Group is pushing for a significant proportion of this housing to be in the 'affordable' bracket.